Using a Kitchen For the Glory of God

If there is a ministry I LOVE, it is Apples of Gold.  If you’re not familiar with it, let me explain with a short description:

It is a cooking/mentoring ministry based on Titus 2.

This ministry allows me to do what I love (cook and bake) where I love (in my kitchen) and to people I love (younger women).

Each session of Apples of Gold (AOG) lasts six weeks, meeting for three hours once a week. The first hour is a cooking lesson.

The second hour is a Bible lesson, based on Titus 2

³ The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

⁴ That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

⁵ To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

The third hour we eat the food that was prepared the first hour and make practical application of our Bible lesson.

We cook, eat, talk, laugh, pray, study, and we pour our life into the lives of younger women.  In short, we obey the Titus 2 command, and that brings blessing!

This past Saturday began another round of AOG, beginning at 9:00 a.m. and ending at noon. A couple of our members couldn’t make the first meeting, so it was a smaller group, but it was a precious time together.  Our cooking lessons are focusing on breads each week.  Saturday I taught the girls to make Sour Dough Bread.

Along with teaching the cooking lesson, I also encourage the ladies to make their meals inviting by presentation of the food and the setting of the table.  We learn a new napkin fold each week.  I teach about menu planning and preparing as much as possible ahead of time.  I let them taste as I cook, and we talk and laugh through the whole time.

After a short break, the ladies met in the living room while my friend Sue taught the Bible lesson on kindness. So many practical truths were made that apply to everyday life.

While they were learning from Sue, I was fixing lunch.  The menu was super simple:

BLT’s
(made with the sour dough bread, of course)
Fresh Veggies and hummus
Chips and Peach Salsa
Fresh Fruit & Honey-Yogurt Dressing 

There’s not a lot of time to snap pictures because every minute is poured into these dear women, but we also had a wonderful time of gathering around the table and eating and discussing kindness in real life.  Afterwards there were one-on-one chats and encouragements.

The girls were each sent home with little loaves of bread and a few other little gifts to help equip them to go home and practice what we learned.

My heart is always SO FULL after those three hours.  It’s exhausting, but you can’t put a price tag on investing in the lives of others. Every time we meet for AOG, I am reminded that I asked the Lord for an open floor plan in my kitchen so I could host this ministry in my home.  Tears welled up in my eyes as we began on Saturday and I cried out to the Lord with a heart of praise for His kindness in letting me use my kitchen for Him.

Who could you bring into your kitchen to teach and encourage something you know about?  What’s stopping you from starting on a small scale and obeying God’s command in Titus 2?

With love and a fully heart from my country kitchen,